Four Days of Disney: Day One

Back in the early 2000's, when we were living in Palm Coast, we were Disney fanatics.  We had annual passes for 5 years in a row and, while it was expensive, I used my tax returns each year to buy them because it provided us with some great family moments and memories so it was worth the expense.

Once we moved here, I had to decide whether I wanted to take the plunge and buy annual passes for Zack and me.  After much debate, we decided to go with the Florida resident 4 day fun pass.  This will give us the opportunity to visit all 4 parks - 1 park each month.  

Yesterday was our day at Animal Kingdom. Chris and C.J. joined us. The first two pictures I took turned out like this:

Could have been a great picture

And I was so worried something was wrong with my camera. But then I realized the lens was fogged over - like glasses when they are moved from a cool environment into a warm one...yeah it was hot out! 


 This is my least favorite of the Disney Parks and even when we had our annual passes we would rarely go here.  If we did, we would usually only spend a half day here and then head to the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon and evening.  But there were 4 things that I wanted to do here...Kilimanjaro Safari, Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur, and Expedition Everest. Well...I didn't really want to do Expedition Everest as much as C.J. and Zack wanted me to go on it.  So I did.  

Kilimanjaro Safari was the first thing we did - and also our longest wait of the day at about 45 minutes.  Zack was so funny as he instructed me to take a picture of every animal we passed.  If I dared to put my camera down he'd say, "mom, don't you want to get a picture of this?" or  "You have to get a picture of this" or something similar.  

So here are the pictures of every single animal we saw on the safari. Including the hippos - which you can't even see!

The hippos you can barely see

A baby giraffe with it's mama

I don't know how they hold up those horns

Ivory tusks

See the hand?  Telling me to "take the picture, mom"

Flamingos - mostly still white. It takes up to 2 years to turn pink

Lion sleeping - which they do about 20 hours a day

Zack said these horns looked like lightning rods

After the safari we "raaaaaaced" our way over to Expedition Everest.  Zack could not even stop for a wanted photo. I had to take it while we were walking and he turned his face briefly to look at me.  Yes, for some reason we were in quite the rush. 

No time for a picture - we might get to Expedition Everest 1 minute later

After that was over - and, thankfully, the line was pretty quick so I didn't have time to really think about what I was doing - we headed over to do Dinosaur.  

WOW - it brought back a lot of memories!  After that we were able to use fast passes for primeval whirl.  Then we grabbed some lunch at an overpriced restaurant, saw A Bug's Life, and headed home because it was, of course, raining.  

Our plan is go to Magic Kingdom next month, EPCOT in October, and Disney Studios around Christmastime to see the lights.